User talk:TravisSociety

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The Travis Society is dedicated to an accurate and comprehensive account of the accomplishments and contributions of Walter J. Travis in the game of golf. The Travis Society is based on the premise that Walter J. Travis is deserving of our recognition and appreciation as one of the great pioneers in the early history of golf in the United States.

Walter Travis immigrated to the United States from Australia in 1884, and became a naturalized U.S. Citizen, as well as a married man in 1890. Travis did not take up the game of golf until his mid-30s, but with great dedication and perseverance, he quickly became a competitor to be reckoned with in the Metropolitan New York City area. Travis joined the newly formed Garden City Golf Club in 1899, an association that had great impact on Travis and the Golf Club for years to come. With John Duncan Dunn, a noted Scottish golf course designer, Travis laid out his first golf course at the Ekwanok Country Club of Manchester, VT in 1899.

In 1900, Travis won his first Metropolitan Golf Association Championship and the U.S. Amateur Championship. By this time, he was fondly known as "The Old Man", because of his late entry into the game. Travis repeated as U.S. Amateur Champion in 1901, a victory that had widespread influence on the game because of his use of the Haskell golf ball, the first wound-rubber golf ball. Also, in 1901, Travis published "Practical Golf", the first of his two books.

In 1903, at age 42, Travis became the first three-time winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship.

1904 was perhaps the greatest year of Travis' competitive career. He opened the season with a victory at the highly prestigious North and South Amateur Championship held annually at Pinehurst, N.C. He published his second book "The Art of Putting". In his crowning golfing achievement, Travis became the first non-Brit to win the British Amateur championship. His use of the center-shafted Schenectady putter in this tournament created a firestorm of controversy in British golf circles. Years later, Grantland Rice, the noted sports writer, would proclaim Travis's British Amateur win as the "greatest upset sports has ever known".

In 1906, Travis was a regular golfing partner of Donald Ross at Pinehurst, N.C., and encouraged Ross to become more engaged in golf course design. Travis contributed ideas for Ross's remodeling of the Pinehurst #2 course, including the lengthening of the first hole.

In November 1908, Travis published the first issue of his magazine, The American Golf, soon widely regarded as the best golf magazine of its time. He continued as Editor and Publisher of the magazine until it was taken over by Grantland Rice in 1920. Throughout his life, Travis contributed numerous columns to magazines such as Country Life in America, Harper's, Munsey's, Golf, and Golf Illustrated.

After retiring from competitive golf in 1916, Travis devoted his time to his magazine and golf course design. His resume of over 30 original golf course designs includes: Ekwanok Country Club, three courses at Westchester Country Club, Garden City Country Club, Yahnundasis Golf Club, Onondaga Golf and Country Club, Round Hill Club, Cape Arundel Golf Club, Youngstown Country Club, Lookout Point Country Club, Cherry Hill Club, Stafford Country Club, Country Club of Scranton, Country Club of Troy, Gleneagles Golf Course at Equinox, Great Dunes course at Jekyll Island, Pennhills Club, Orchard Park Country Club, etc. Courses heavily identified with Travis as a result of his remodeling efforts include: Hollywood Golf Club, Columbia Country Club, and Louisville Country Club.

Walter J. Travis died shortly after going to Denver, CO, after going there to regain his health. He and his wife are buried in Dellwood Cemetery in Manchester, VT, near two of his favorite golf courses, Ekwanok and Gleneagles.

[edit] WikiProject Golf

Wikiproject Golf

This is a "newsletter" of sorts. It's designed to let you know whats going on with the WikiProject. Contact me, Grovermj, if there is anything i could improve, or if you would like to write the newsletter yourself, because i'm certainly not skilled and experienced at this. Call it a test run. Well, it's been a month since the project has started, and 4 new articles have been made by editors in the project. They can be found here. The template {{Wikiproject Golf}} has been added to a total of 794 articles. We are most probably more than half way there. Badbilltucker has proposed "Wikipedia Week" starting on the 15th of January. Details can be found here. We have 14 participants at present. If you are in need of things to do, the To-Do list could be a good start. At present, there are no featured articles related to golf, and only one Good article. This is Tiger Woods. Discuss golf course notability and a possible featured article collaboration on the talk page. Thanks for your support with this project. Grover 08:42, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Golf Newsletter

The WikiProject Golf Newsletter Issue II - February 2007 If you would like to improve our future newsletters, go to our newsletter page.
News Well, this newsletter is new. I'm still mucking around with the layout, so if someone feels it could be better, go right ahead and change it. The newsletter page is right here. An article has been selected for a drive to featured status, Jack Nicklaus. The article is currently rated a B, and is currently a Good Article candidate (thanks to The Giant Puffin). A to-do list has been set up in the talk page, see what you can do, or add a new thing to do which you think you could write well. A shortcut WP:GOLF has been created. Thanks again The Giant Puffin! Please add to the new list of core articles: Core article list.	New Members We have had two new members join our project this month. They are: Kingutd (talk • contribs) Jiminy pop (talk • contribs) mil8 (talk • contribs) roysnj (talk • contribs)
Updates/New Articles Expansions: Royal Birkdale Golf Club New Articles: Robert Rock Click here for a full list. Featured/Good Articles No articles have been promoted to Good or Featured status this month.	The To-Do list Over 1100 golf articles have been tagged with our template {{Wikiproject Golf}}. There is still many more though. A userbox is requested for golf course articles including location, par etc. This may need to be discussed on the talk page. Continue expanding and making new golf-related articles. Click here for a full list.

[edit] WikiProject Golf Newsletter

The WikiProject Golf Newsletter Issue III - March 2007 If you would like to improve our future newsletters, go to our newsletter page.
News This newsletter is new. I'm still mucking around with the layout, so if someone feels it could be better, go right ahead and change it. The newsletter page is right here. Also, if you would like to change the way you recieve the newsletter i.e. a link, make a comment on the newsletter talk page. An article has been selected for a drive to featured status, Jack Nicklaus. The article is currently rated a Good article. A to-do list has been set up in the talk page, see what you can do, or add a new task to do which you think you could write well. Remember to check the talk page for more news on the project.	New Members We have had three new members join our project this month. They are: usnr53 (talk • contribs) Simkiott (talk • contribs) Peter Dennis (talk • contribs)
Featured/Good Articles Jack Nicklaus has been promoted to a good article! Congratulations and well done to everyone that helped.	The To-Do list Over 1200 golf articles have been tagged with our template {{Wikiproject Golf}}. There is still many more though. A userbox is requested for golf course articles including location, par etc. This may need to be discussed on the talk page. Continue expanding and making new golf-related articles. Click here for a full list.